Charming: The Slipper - 2. Chapter Two

Walking across the busy street wasn’t an easy task, especially since it was lunch time, and everyone was rushing in their cars to get food at the closest restaurant and return before their thirty-minute break was over. It wasn’t smart either since two cars had to slam their brake pedal, so they wouldn’t hit me as I jaywalked. It earned me a few honks of their horns and a few choice words, but I was in a rush as well as I carried four holders in both hands, each carrying four hot beverages of various types of coffees. Each one was different, and it was a bitch having to order each one in the coffee shop that was filled with other patrons wanting their caffeine fix as well. Several patrons gave me the death stare as I walked out with seventeen coffees…well sixteen coffees and one cookies and crème milkshake. A sugar rush was what all I needed.

After crossing the hazardous street, I entered the agency that I worked at for almost three years that was cleverly named Slip and Fall by my Aunt Cindi. I was in the building for not even two seconds before more than a dozen agents swarmed me, grabbing their coffees and rushing back to their desks. Not one expressed any appreciation to me for getting them their coffees, but I expected that. Everyone in the job knew that I was related to Cindi, and even though they all had respect for their boss, none of them liked the idea of someone obtaining a position here through nepotism instead of merit. And it didn’t help my case that I screwed up more than a few of my undercover missions, and no amount of convincing them of how much I busted my ass in the academy would fix that. So, I just let them hold onto their opinions of me as I walked to the break room to hand my last fellow coworker his coffee since I was basically their servant after what happened with the dog fighting ring two weeks ago.

I could hear the agent telling a joke about a wolf being in the city’s police department, earning him several laughs as he leaned his hip against the back of a couch. I took a deep breath and approached him with a plastered smile on my face and his coffee extended to him. It took a few seconds for him to acknowledge my presence, but when he did, he had that arrogant smirk, a type of smirk that earned anybody else a punch in the face. However, for him…it earned him a kick in the crotch as well. I held back, though, as I continued to have his coffee extended out and waited for him to take it. The other agents, sensing the tension, walked out of the room, leaving only me and Grant. He continued to look at me condescendingly, like I was beneath him even though we were at the same level; though, he did have a better track record than me, a record that I could only wish to obtain one day.

With a chuckle, Grant finally took his coffee, a drip-brewed coffee with a shot of expresso, four sugars and extra milk. I knew those details since I was constantly reminded by him before I went to the coffee shop, and I had to make sure that the baristas got it perfectly right since the guy was that stubborn about his coffee. Or he just wanted to ruin my day by making me have to remember his more complicated order; I don’t know. I understand that he didn’t like how I got this job, but it didn’t mean that he could treat me like shit since I was nothing but kind to him and everyone else since day one.

I hated Grant. No…I despised him since he was not only an asshole to me, but also because he had to be so goddamn good-looking as well. From his sculpted, facial features to his perfectly tailored suit that emphasized the muscular body that must be underneath it all, his looks made me often wonder why this man didn’t decide to model instead. A man with Adonis-like looks could easily rival every other model who all looked more like clones produced at a factory. I saw the way he charmed the female agents with just a smirk, and they all lapped it like dogs. If only his ugly interior matched his physical appearance, then maybe I wouldn’t be so obsessed with him. Hatred and lust were a dangerous concoction and the sooner that I went back to my desk, the sooner my thoughts about him won’t boil over.

I watched Grant as he took a sip of coffee, and damnit, even the way he drank his coffee was sexy. He didn’t say anything, which meant that I got his order right. So, I quickly turned around and began to walk away. Then I heard him clear his throat, and I knew I must’ve screwed up again. Of course.

“Hey, Maximilian. I got my coffee, but where’s my cinnamon roll?” Grant asked snidely.

I cursed mentally, not only because I forgotten his little snack, but also because I hated it when people referred to me by my full name, and Grant knew that since that was the only way he referred to me as even I corrected him before. Sighing, I slowly turned and forced myself to look at Grant who had an eyebrow raised.

Clearing my throat, I said, “Sorry, I…”

“Forgot,” Grant completed before shaking his head. “You forgot the main objective of your last mission with the dog fighting ring, why would I expect that you wouldn’t forget the rest of my order?”

“I’m sorry. I won’t forget next time,” I said, trying to hold a long list of comebacks that I’ve wanted to say for very long time.

“You better not. Do I have to staple a note on your forehead, so you won’t forget?” Taking another sip of his coffee, Grant continued by saying, “This world isn’t full of second chances, Maximilian, and you’ve been given many…too many I should say. You better do a better job next time, because one more major fuckup and not even your relations with the boss will keep you from getting your ass fired. Got it?”

I suppressed a sigh, and I just nodded instead. Grant was speaking to me like he was my father, ironic since I never knew who my father was, but I’d guess that was how other fathers who were disappointed with their children would talk. And I wouldn’t be surprised that he ordered the cinnamon roll, knowing that I would forget just so he could chastise me like always. Like I said before, if he wasn’t so damn good-looking, I wouldn’t feel ashamed to connect my fist with his face that he used as an asset like for his last mission that involved seducing a princess to gain key intel to just flirting with the female coworkers. He had no shame.

Grant smirked as he slowly walked past with his coffee in one hand and his phone in the other, most likely texting another woman he was going to sleep with since his sexual escapades were well known inside the agency. For me, however, I’d rather keep my personal life, you know, personal. But maybe that was just me. I only shared aspects of my personal life to people I was close to, and those people didn’t include his coworkers in the agency, except for Cindi ever since my mother kicked me out her house and life. When I think about, I had no friends at the agency, only people who had certain degrees of animosity towards me and that just sucked.

Taking a long sip of his milkshake, its cold, chocolatey and creamy contents distracted me from my current thoughts, and I walked out of the break room and returned to my desk. Even though I had an hour-long break, I decided I go back to my work, which involved everything that was mundane about a boring desk job. However, I knew I needed to build myself back up after my most recent screwup. So, taking another sip of my milkshake, I dived deep into my work, and I didn’t resurface until a couple of hours later. That was when I found a breakthrough with one of the cases I was fervently taking apart and putting the pieces back together.

The case was very interesting, which involved the illegal trading of animals, talking animals to be specific. These animals came from all over the world, and there was currently a debate about whether these creatures had the same sentience as humans and, if so, deserved the same rights. It was very depressing that these exotic animals were being taken away from their natural habitat, especially since these habitats, after being emptied of all wildlife, became the home of very dark, very evil magic. Many experts didn’t know why this was happening, but one theory suggested that these animals with human voices were representatives of their species and each species represented different aspects of a human-like personality with the ecosystem being that human.

So, taking them away resulted in the ecosystem being a husk of its former existence, causing a lot of bad things to possess it like an evil spirit since the rest of these species had no more voice. The famine part was very troubling as well since it was not only the woods that were being affected, but also many acres of crops were failing to make enough produce to satisfy an already inflated population. If this continued, a food shortage would occur, and I didn’t I want to think about what would happen next. At least he wouldn’t have to get coffee for the agency if the coffee bean trade died too. Jokes aside, these talking animals were vital for allowing these ecosystems to continue functioning like laws in society; they were the leaders of their species and taking their voices away resulted in complete anarchy.

For this case, I wasn’t only trying to find leads on the people responsible for these illegal trades, but I was trying to discover if one person specifically who might be part of a large operation that was steadily growing in influenced and that person was the leader of a gang. I was completely invested with trying to verify that this leader was the one responsible for these animal trades, and after two hours of nonstop research and connecting the dots, I finally drew the complete picture, and I was two-hundred percent confident that I had our man. I was almost jumped out of my desk chair, and I walked at a fast pace to Cindi’s office, ready to present my findings to her, very sure that this would exonerate me, ending my community service and be back in the frontlines where I belonged.

***

Only an hour passed after I showed Cindi what I discovered, and she announced that a meeting about the case was going to happen. She thanked me for my finding, and I would’ve showed up early and got a seat at the front row to further her respect for me, but I had to clean up a mess involving spilled coffee at the break room since I was apparently the janitor as well. I entered the room a few minutes late with Cindi already talking with the projector screen on, and I looked down as I took a seat at the empty back row, not wanting to be more of a disruption than I already was. Some of the agents were looking at me with disapproval, but I tried my best to ignore them as I opened my notebook to an empty page, ready to write down all the important information.

I placed the lead of my pencil on the lined paper, but when the lead snapped, I mentally cursed. I looked at the person sitting in the row in front of me, and I hesitantly tapped his shoulder. I showed him my pencil, and all he did was snicker before resuming to writing chicken scratch on his notepad. I refrained from saying anything I would regret, and I just listened to Cindi with the hope that I could retain the most important information in my head. No way was I going to disrupt the meeting again just to get another pencil. The high that I got from my discovery was already going down, and I felt like student completely unprepared for a lesson again.

Cindi was giving an overview on the illegal animal trade and the reason why that was very detrimental to the crops and food production all around the world. It was information I already knew, but when she started talking about the case itself, I leaned forward in my seat, which creaked and definitely earned a few negative reactions. But of course, something else had to wrong when I heard a buzzing sound. I dismissed it as a small fly as I subtly swiped at my ear. Then I heard a tiny, giggling noise, and I turned my head to see that it was fairy. Fairies were a major pestilence in the city, like rats and cockroaches, and because of their prankster nature, they were especially annoying. I tried to swipe away the fairy, but it managed to dodge my moves. Then it moved to my face; blowing fairy into my nose, and what came next made me wish I could turn back time and make this event never happen in the first place.

I started sneezing, and they were not small sneezes either. They were big ones that caused me to stand up from my seat as each sneeze came like a crashing wave. I tried my best to hide them, but it obvious I was now the center of attention. It felt like I was sneezing for a straight minute until I finally regained my composure, and when I looked to see Cindi with a raised eyebrow, I was about to apologize when one final sneeze came through me like a tsunami, the force causing me to fall backwards onto my chair and onto the floor.

I completely disoriented after that last sneeze that I didn’t register the laughter flooding the room, and when I sat up and saw everyone looking at me, including Cindi who had her arms crossed, I wished I would sink into the floor and disappear from this world. The same fairy hovered in front of me again, laughing too, and I tried to swipe at it with my notebook, but instead it grabbed and pulled it away from my hand before tossing it at my coworkers. A shout was heard, and one of them stood up, and imagine my luck that it was Grant who was just got struck on the head by my notebook. The fairy giggled one last time before buzzing away and leaving me to my fate as the man stomped towards me while baring his teeth.

Grant was already grabbing me by the lapels of my suit as I tried to stand back up. He lifted my entire body, taking my feet off the ground, and he pushed me against the wall, ready to punch the hell out of me. Before that could happen, though, someone shouted, and he turned his head to Cindi who was stomped towards him with her black heels clicking on the floor.

“Release Agent Maximilian right now, Agent Grant!” Cindi ordered.

Grant grunted, giving me one death stare before releasing me. “Your agent just threw his notebook at me!”

“And you react with your fists? I need all my agents to be professional and not resort to juvenile actions. Agent Maximilian, what in Godmother’s name were you doing?”

“It was a fairy! It blew fairy dust at me, causing me to sneeze and it was the one who threw the notebook at Grant,” I explained.

“We wouldn’t be having fairies here if someone took the trash out like they’re supposed to,” Grant mentioned, which only caused me to form my own hands into fists.

“Enough!” Cindi looked at me and said, “You. In my office. Now!”

I immediately unclenched my fists and said, “But Cindi—”

“Don’t argue with me! Go to my office and wait there, while I continue with the rest of the meeting. Now go!”

I shut my mouth and just nodded. Cindi placed her hand on her forehead, sighing, before walking back to the front of the room. Before I walked out of the meeting, I saw Grant and his smirk, and I wanted so badly to punch his face with all my strength. But I held back as always, and I walked out of the room and to Cindi’s office, and on the way, I saw a few more fairies buzzing around a filled trashcan and I knew any chance of building a respectable reputation here was hopeless. There was no happy ending this fellow.